Prosecutors Doubt Claim That Witness Lied During Duckett Trial

OCALA — Prosecutors are skeptical of a private investigator's claim that a key witness in the James Duckett murder trial lied on the stand and has since recanted her testimony.

Private investigator Ron Hill of Lakeland has alleged that Lake County sheriff's investigators persuaded Gwen Gurley to give false testimony. Hill also says Gurley has given him a taped statement admitting she lied.

But a review of the Duckett file has turned up a document proving that Gurley was never coached by sheriff's investigators, said Ric Ridgway, the 5th Circuit's chief assistant state attorney.

''Mr. Hill cried wolf in this case once before and nothing was there,'' Ridgway said Friday. ''It appears he's done it again.''

Ridgway said an investigation of Hill's claim will continue, however, and that Gurley will be interviewed.

Duckett, a former Mascotte police officer, is on death row at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair after a Lake County jury convicted him last year of the rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee while on patrol in the small south Lake town.

Gurley testified during the trial that she saw both Duckett and the girl at a Mascotte convenience store the night before Teresa's body was found in a lake. Gurley said she watched Duckett drive away with what appeared to be a small person inside his car.

Duckett said he never drove away with the girl, and that he instead told her the town's curfew for young people was approaching and she needed to walk back to her home about a block away.

Hill, who says he believes Duckett is innocent, is alleging that former sheriff's investigator Rocky Harris and others coached Gurley to testify as she did, according to Ridgway. Gurley was in jail for a time before the Duckett trial, and Hill says the investigators promised her they could get her out sooner if she testified as they asked.

Ridgway said Friday that Hill's allegations appear groundless. He said a statement written by a Lake County jail guard that was found in the Duckett case file this week indicates Gurley gave the guard the same account as her testimony after seeing news of Duckett's indictment on television.

''She saw it on TV and told the guard, 'Hey, I know something about that,' '' Ridgway said Friday. He said Gurley told the guard what she knew, and it wasn't until later that sheriff's investigators even talked to her.

Also, Ridgway said, it appears that Gurley's jail stay was not shortened.

Hill, a former pro wrestler who says he is writing an in-depth account of Duckett's case, did not return telephone calls Friday. Gurley's whereabouts were unknown.

This is not the first time Hill has accused Lake County authorities of stacking the deck against Duckett. Several months ago he accused sheriff's evidence technicians of planting phony evidence at the spot where Teresa's body was found.

Ridgway said that allegation proved groundless.

Randy Aleno, who has since left the sheriff's evidence unit for a job with the state attorney's office, is suing Hill in circuit court for slander.